Temporary securing means for prehung doors



7 May 10, 1966 D. A. STRUTIN 3,250,039

TEMPORARY SECURING MEANS FOR PREHUNG DOORS Filed March 16, 1964 2 Sheets-Sheet l INVENTOK DAVID A. STRUTIN F G. 2 BY ATTORNEY May 10, 1966 D. A. STRUTIN TEMPORARY SECURING MEANS FOR PREHUNG DOORS Filed March 16, 1964 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 FIG. 3

FIG. 8

INVENTOK DAVID A. STRUTIN ATTORNEY FIG. 6

3,250,039 TEMPORARY SECURING MEANS FOR PREHUNG DOORS David A. Strutin, Youngstown, Ohio, assignor to Chrysler Aluminum, Inc., Struthers, Ohio, a corporation of Ohio Filed Mar. 16, 1964, Ser. No. 351,906 4 Claims. (Cl. 49380) This invention relates to the art of manufacturing and distributing prehung doors-i.e. wherein a door is fitted with hinges and possibly other hardware, the hinges being attached to a prefitted frame which is shipped along with the door and by which the door maybe applied to an existing building structure. It is, of course, desirable that the established clearances and alignments between the door and the mounting frame be set at the factory and maintained during shipping-and installation so that upon the frame being rigidly secured to a permanent building structure the door will be at once available for normal use. Accordingly, it has been heretofore proposed to provide temporary securing means, in addition to the hinges, to retain the edges of the door in properly spaced and aligned relation with the structural sections of the mounting frame.

The primary object of the present invention is to provide improved temporary securing means for the purpose above stated whereby the cost of providing the same is materially reduced and whereby the secured structural sections of the mounting frame are more rigidly connected to the door during shipment and installation so as to minimize the possibility of any of such sections assuming any unwanted wavy or flaring relation to the door at time of installation. Another and more specifieobject of the inventionis to accomplish this improvement while utilizing very inexpensive and readily producible retaining clips which are rapidly installed in the structures by the aid of a special tool and without the necessity of employing screws, bolts and the like.

Another object of the invention is to simplify and speed up the removal of the temporary retaining clips employed after the mounting frame is rigidly afiixed to the building structure and the door is ready for operation. Also, the invention provides a simplified and inexpensive method for attaching an informative or instructional tag to the door and frame package which tag is automatically disengaged when one of the temporary clips is removed.

The invention has especial, but not exclusive, application in prehung door structures made of aluminum extrusions and insofar as such application is concerned the invention resides in the concept of integrally forming appropriate ribs or flanges on the extruded section making up the free door edge and on the mating mounting frame section, and in providing aspecial designed bridging clip which cooperates with these various ribs or flanges to rigidly retain the door edge in proper relation to the contiguous section of the mounting frame. A special tool, part of the manufacturers equipment, is provided to force these clips into proper position. In this manner the heretofore use of screws or bolts along with their requirement for mounting holes and time-consuming labor for installation and removal is avoided.

The above and other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent upon consideration of the following specification and the accompanying drawing wherein there is illustrated a preferred embodiment of the invention.

In the drawing:

FIGURE 1 is a front elevation of a prehung storm door secured in temporarily assembled condition by means of the structure of the present invention;

FIGURE 2 is a fragmentary view, on an enlarged scale, of a portion of the assembly of FIGURE 1 but showing 3,256,039 Patented May 10, 1966 a directive tag secured in position on one of the retentive clips used in FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 3 is a horizontal sectional view taken along the lines IIIIII of FIGURE 2;

FIGURE 4 is a plan view of one of the securing clips utilized in FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 5 is a partial side elevation of a special tool I used to apply the clip of FIGURE 4;

FIGURE 6 is a detailed view showing the securing clip in initial manually-placed position in a side rail of the door of FIGURE 1; and

FIGURES 7 and 8 show two successive positions assumed by the special tool and the clip in the application of the clip to final locking position in the assembly of FIGURE 1.

Referring first to FIGURE 1 which generally represents a conventional prehung storm door made of aluminum extrusions, reference numeral 10 designates the door proper while reference numeral 11 designates the side jambs of a mounting frame having a header member 12. In accordance with usual practice, the frame comprised of the parts 11, 12 is factory-assembled and the door 10 is factory-mounted on one of the other of the jambs 11 by means of hinges 13. The function of the temporary securing means of the present invention is to retain the free swinging edge of the door (opposite the hinges) in proper relation to the adjacent jamb so that after the jambs 11 and the header 12 are secured to a permanent building structure (by wood screws, for example) the re moval of the temporary retaining clips will permit the door to swing open and shut with proper alignment and clearance with respect to the mounting frame jambs.

In accordance with the principle of this invention, the outer side rail of the door, designated by reference numeral 14 is formed with outer front and back inturned flanges 15 and 16 as shown in thesection of FIGURE 3. Commonly, such rails as part 14 are made of hollow aluminum extrusions, and it should be noted that the flanges 15 and 16 extend outwardly of the end wall. 17 of the extrusion 14. The jamb 11 is-also preferably made of an aluminum extrusionQhaving a cross section as shown in FIGURE 3, and the inner face or edge of this jamb is also formed, as shown, with a pair of inner and outer inwardly turned flanges 18 and 19 which are spaced apart equal to the spacing between flanges 15 and 16 on the door.

In accordance with the invention, the inturned flanges 15, 16 and 18, 19 are utilized to temporarily but rigidly hold the mounting frame jamb 11 which is opposite the hinges 13 in properly spaced relation to the outer free swinging edge of the door, all as is evident from FIGURE 3. For this purpose, I provide a readily insertable and removable clip designated generally by reference numeral 20 which in initial form is as shown in FIGURES 4, 6 and 7 but which after being crimped into operative position assumes the form shown in FIGURES 2, 3 and 8. The clip 20 is stamped from sheet metal and has a slotted body portion 21 from which extends an elongated tine 22 'having an integral laterally extending tab 23 at its midportion. The length of body portion 21 is such that the four sharp corners formed thereon will bite into and tightly wedge into the four flanges 1 5, 16 and 18, 19 when the body member is forced into normal position with respect to the flanges by the special tool hereafter to be described.

3 1 1 (-FIGURE 2), which clearance is necessary for the proper swinging of the door as will be understood. The tool .24 has a hook 26 which fits into the slots formed in the body members 21 of the clips 20, and it should be understood that when it is desiredto temporarily assemble the rail 14 of the door and the adjacent jamb 11 that the door is first closed into the jamb after which a number of the clips may be manually inserted into the interstice to positions shown in FIGURE 6. At this stage, the clips are completely flat as shown in FIGURE 4 and they are inserted by grasping the free ends of the tines 22 with the planes of the clip parallel with the clearance 25. The clips are then rotated into positions as shown in FIGURE 6 and a slight manual pressure on the tines will tern-' porarily hold the clips in position. The sharp corners or barbs on the body members 21 of the clips and the soft nature of the extrusions assist in this securement, as will be understood.

With a clip temporaritly inserted as shown in FIG- UR-E 6, the tool 24 is then inserted knife-like in the clearance 25 until the hook 26 of the tool is inserted in the slot of the clip. The .tool is now rotated downwardly through the position shown in FIGURE 7 and to the final position shown in FIGURE 8 wherein the free end of the tine 22 is bent down into the clearance 26 while the tab 23 limits the downward bending movement of the tine. It should be noted that the tool 24 has an edge 27 which overrides the end of the time to position the same downwardly and that this edge terminates in a knife-like point or radius which facilitates the full rotation of the tool. The tool 24 also has a handle 28 which, in practice, terminates in a hand grip not shown herein.

In addition to the above ascribed function for the tab 23 of the clip 20 it also serves as a means for keeping a portion of the tine (between the body portion 20 and the tab 23) spaced slightly outward from the front face of the side rail .14 of the door 10. This space is sufficient for the insertion of the edge of a screw driver whereby the tine may be readily lifted out of the clearance 25 and then rotated for the removal of the clip. Thus, after the mounting frame comprised of the jambs 11 and header 12 and with the door hinged thereon is permanently secured to the building structure as suggested in FIGURE 3 (by wood screws passing through apertures shown in members 1 1, 12) the installer rapidly removes the clips 20, permitting the door to swing normally open and closed.

The tine 22 with tab 23 has a further advantageous function which is shown in FIGURE 2 wherein reference numeral 29 represents a small square of stifl cardboard on which may be imprinted instructions for removing the clips along with possibly a trademark designation and/ or other informative matter. The tag 29 is provided with an aperture adjacent one of its corners for threading over the free end of the tine of one of the clips of a unit, the tab 23 preventing sliding movement of the tag in one direction and the inturned end of the free end of the tine preventing sliding movement of the tag in the opposite direction.

It should now be apparent that I have provided an improved temporary securing means for prehung doors which accomplishes the objects initially set out above. This means in the form of the deformable clips herein disclosed may be very rapidly and economically applied to the prehung door assembly during its manufiacture. The necessary flanges required on the structural elements are readily incorporated into the dies used for extruding the elements and do not add to the cost of these structural sections particularly since it is common practice to design various flanges and ribs into the cross sections of the elements for strengthening purposes. The clips 20 are simply small stampings from sheet metal and may be produced in large quantities at nominal cost. Also, less labor is involved in the application of the clips since with experience a workman may use the tool 24- in a very rapid mannertaking less time than would be required, for example, in applying screw-held clips as has heretofore been employed in the art.

A singular advantage of the method and means of the invention is the rigidity and depend-ability of the interlock provided between the free swinging edge or edges of the door and the cooperating mounting frame sections (jambs or both jambs and headers, if desired). The body portions 21 of the clips become tightly wedged and gouged into the flanges 15, 16 and v18, 19 and connot become loose in handling or shipping. Since the barbs on the body portions 21 dig int-o the sections .11 and 14, both front and back, it is impossible for the sections to flex with respect to each other which prevents any loosening during shipment or handling and which preserves the desired alignment and spacing precisely during installation of the prehung assembly on a building structure.

Having thus described my invention what I claim is:

1. In an assembly of a door hinged in a preassembled mounting frame and having means to temporarily secure the free swinging side edge of the door in predetermined relation to the adjacent jamb of the frame the improvement comprising front and back but outwardly extending and inturned flanges on said edge, said jamb having front and back but inwardly extending and inturned flanges opposite said first flanges to provide a rectangularly shaped interstice between said door edge and .jarnb, and a metal clip of double dovetail shape having barb-shaped corners forcibly inserted in said interstice with said corners engaging said flanges to thereby rigidly secure said jamb to said free door edge.

2. Structure according to claim 1 further characterized in that said clip is provided with an aperture for the insertion of a tool whereby said clip may be rocked in said interstice and the barb-shaped corners thereof thus brought into forcible engagement with said flanges.

3. Structure according to claim 2 further characterized in that said clip includes an outwardly projecting and bendable tine which extends outwardly of the flanges which are in the outside plane of the door, and said tool being rockable and having a surface engaging said tine to bend the free end thereof back in between said last mentioned flanges while the clip is being forcibly wedged between said flanges.

'4. Structure according to claim 3 further characterized in that said time has an integral laterally extending tab intermediate its ends, said tab being operative to engage the outer surface of one of said flanges whereby only the free end portion of said time is bent back down between said last mentioned flanges.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,570,351 1/1926 Hultin 52214 2,537,930 1/1951 Hall 18936 X 2,917,790 12/ 1959 Espenschied 20-46 3,103,263 9/ 1963 Lesser 189-36 HARRISON R. MOSELEY, Primary Examiner.

REINALDO P. MACHADO, Examiner.

K. DOWNEY, Assistant Examiner. 

1. IN AN ASSEMBLY OF A DOOR HINGED IN A PREASSUMBLED MOUNTING FRAME AND HAVING MEANS TO TEMPORARILY SECURE THE FREE SWINGING SIDE EDGE OF THE DOOR IN THE PREDETERMINED RELATION TO THE ADJACENT JAMB OF THE FRAME THE IMPROVEMENT COMPRISING FRONT AND BACK BUT OUTWARDLY EXTENDING AND INTURNED FLANGES ON SAID EDGE, SAID JAMB HAVING FRONT AND BACK BUT INWARDLY EXTENDING AND INTURNED FLANGES OPPOSITE SAID FIRST FLANGES TO PROVIDE A RECTANGULARLY SHAPED 